14 DAY TRIAL // It was initially unclear why Apple decided to re-ship Java 1.6.0_31 for OS X this week, but the company’s Mike Swingler confirms via email that the purpose was to fix a flaw in Xcode.
Addressing all Java developers, Swingler wrote in an email, “Today we re-shipped our Java 1.6.0_31 for OS X Lion today to address a critical issue we found in Xcode and the Application Loader tool.”
He clarifies that, with the exception of a few symlinks and version numbers, this new "Java for OS X 2012-002" package is effectively identical to "Java for OS X 2012-001".
“For the sake of expediency, we have re-rolled the automatic update as our standard full combo updater, with the hope that most users have not yet been presented with 2012-001. We considered creating a delta update for users who already installed 001, but that would have made the process of getting these fixes to you take longer,” Swingler explains.
“We apologize for the inconvenience, and would like to offer our thanks to the developers who caught this issue and reported it to us as quickly as they did. This issue only impacts Lion users, so Snow Leopard users have nothing to reinstall,” says the Apple staffer.
Swingler promises to produce updated release notes and tech notes, as well as developer packages with the revised 002 version numbers, over the next few days.
Apple initially released Java for OS X Lion 2012-001 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 7 this week to address security issues with the Oracle-developed platform.
The Apple staffer also posts manual download links for the two Java updates for Lion and Snow Leopard.
Java for OS X 2012-002: <http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1515> Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 7: <http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1516>